All that glitters isn't gold -- especially in a tourist town: Plain Dealing

Q. I'm a retiree who works as dance host on a cruise ship several times a year. In April, during a stop in Egypt, I used my credit card at two shops and bought $3,990 in gemstones and a $403 gold necklace. When I got home, an appraiser told me the sapphires and rubies are synthetic. I tried to sell the necklace to three different jewelers here, all of whom said it's not really gold. I disputed the charges with Chase, which says it can't help me. Bill Cornacchione, Mayfield Heights

A, Chase reconsidered your dispute and issued you a courtesy credit.

No doubt many readers spit out their coffee when they read you dropped several thousands of dollars on an impulse purchase of jewelry while far from home, but over the years, a surprising number of readers have confessed to doing just that, with similar results.

Vacations have a way of making people more impulsive, which can be a wonderful thing if you're plunging into the vowel-free streets of Prague or hopping astride a camel for a tour of the pyramids.

But buying jewels from an unfamiliar merchant in a third-world tourist town is riskier than sampling goat meat hanging in an open air market.

Barbara Wheat of the International Colored Gemstone Association said ripoffs by phony gem merchants are commonplace at cruise ship ports and other areas with high tourist traffic, particularly in countries with lax consumer protection laws.

Caribbean vendors are known for peddling chemically treated gemstones to tourists, she said. It's only a ripoff, she notes, if they try to pass off these altered stones as more valuable natural gems.

In one scam common in Asia, she said, travelers have what appear to be chance encounters with locals who helpfully direct them to what is described as a special government-sponsored gem sale open only to foreigners. Tourists scoop up incredible deals on what they believe are precious stones but in fact are fakes.

Because evaluating gemstone quality is so confusing – there are natural stones, heat-treated natural stones, chemical-treated stones, lab-created stones and synthetics -- consumers who know little about jewels can easily misunderstand or be mislead about what they're buying.

Frankly, it's not a good idea to invest in anything that you don't have the expertise to evaluate or that you don't understand the market for – whether that investment is sapphires you bought at a souk or rare coins you ordered from your sofa in response to an ad on TV.

Does using a credit card for a risky purchase protect you?

Yes, within limits.

As you know, the Fair Credit Billing Act allows consumers to dispute charges. But while disputing an unauthorized charge is usually a slam dunk, disputes over the quality of goods and services goods are tricky.

The Fair Credit Billing Act contains certain caveats when it comes to disputing the quality of merchandise or services:

• You must have tried to resolve the issue with the merchant first.

• The purchase must be for more than $50.

• The purchase must have been made in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address.

As a matter of course, credit networks like Visa and MasterCard and American Express ignore the $50 and 100-mile limit. Consumers routinely win quality disputes for smaller amounts or purchases made farther from home. But if you're beyond these limits, your dispute may be governed more by the card terms than the Fair Credit Billing Act.

With that in mind, several things can spell the difference between a dispute's success or failure:

• Act fast. You have to submit a dispute within 60 days of the date your card issuer sends you the statement containing the disputed charge. Wait too long, and you may be barred from making a dispute.

If a merchant agrees to give a refund and then fails to do so, you may be able to reset the clock by claiming the erroneous bill was the one that failed to include the promised credit.

• Try to work it out with the merchant. If you don't try to contact the vendor first, your dispute may be rejected. Keep copies of your correspondence with the vendor. But don't wait so long for the merchant's answer that you miss the dispute deadline.

• Put the dispute in writing. To preserve your rights under Fair Credit Billing Act, you'll need to send a written dispute to your card issuer's dispute address. (That's likely different from where you send your payments.) Call customer service to get the correct address, or look for the "billing inquiries" address on your bill.

• Have documentation. If you're lodging a complaint about misrepresentation, it helps to have the seller's representations about the product in writing. Claims made in ads, sales fliers, packaging and certificates can be valuable. In this case, you got an appraisal, but you didn't have any documents from the seller that described the value or quality of each stone. It's not unusual for scam artists to swap products or remove gem certificates at the last minute, so check everything before you leave the shop.

• Don't be afraid to appeal. If the credit card company sides with the merchant, write back promptly to point out information that you believe it overlooked.

• If you believe the issuer denied your dispute in violation of the Fair Credit Billing Act or its card terms, you can file a complaint with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (toll-free: 1-855-411-2372. )

Card issuers deal with consumers on disputes, but they have to follow rules set by the card networks to make a chargeback to the merchant, said Chase spokesman Rob Tacey. He declined to talk about your dispute, but said that Chase ultimately decided to issue you courtesy credit for the jewelry charges. The bank, not the vendor, ate the loss.

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